Human-induced pressures are expected to intensify this century. @uriroll.bsky.social &co present #ProactiveConservationIndex, a new tool for #conservation prioritization regarding future threats for any group of species, & apply it to all terrestrial #vertebrates @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3WVRpRH

Extreme climate events can catalyze rapid evolutionary change! in our new Current Biology (@currentbiology.bsky.social) piece, Colin and I argue it’s time to study their evolutionary consequences systematically — beyond opportunistic observations. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Nature research paper: Stronger El Niños reduce tropical forest arthropod diversity and function go.nature.com/40WEeCG

🫠. A tree came out today with 9,072 bird species, all placements based on actual DNA. It looks like they used eBird 2022 taxonomy; 10,096 were recognized back then. That means these folks just dropped (molecularly well informed) knowledge on 83% of the world's birds. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Why do treehoppers look so weird?! Our latest paper, out this week in @pnas.org, suggests a perhaps unexpected reason - static electricity ⚡ We show that treehoppers can detect the electrostatic cues of predators and that their crazy shapes may boost their electrosensitivity! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Ecology and Biogeography of Sexual Size Dimorphism in Squamates, Liang et al., GEB onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

maybe my favorite paper I've written, I have a synthesis out today early access in @asn-amnat.bsky.social today that attempts to answer a simple but slippery question: what is an elevational range? doi.org/10.1086/737130

NEW SCIENCE! 🚨🚨🚨🧪🪶🌐 Our paper is now online at @natecoevo.nature.com! “Geographic redistributions are insufficient to mitigate exposure to climate change in North American birds”. We know birds are moving north with climate change, but what are the consequences? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“observed patterns of island biodiversity … demonstrate that neutral models can make accurate predictions of higher-order diversity statistics. “ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... 🧪🌐

“There’s just no moths on that sheet.” @tessairini.bsky.social writes in the @theguardian.com about #InsectDecline with #DanJanzen, #WinnieHallwachs and the caterpillars of the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste #ACG in #CostaRica @gdfcf.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Amazon rainforest adjusts to long-term experimental drought ..."After elevated tree mortality during the first 15 years, ecosystem-level structural changes resulted in the remaining trees no longer experiencing drought stress." 🧪🌐🌾 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share my new article on how morphological diversification proceeds during evolutionary radiations: "The diffused evolutionary dynamics of morphological novelty" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧵 1/12

Human pressures reshape biodiversity, but not always in expected ways. No global biotic homogenization found. Impacts vary by threat, taxa, and scale. #LandUse #Overexploitation #Pollution #ClimateChange #Invasives 👉Conservation must get specific #KnowYourPressure #TailorYourStrategy #BendTheCurve

Exciting news! @wcratcliff.bsky.social and I published an essay last week in @nature.com reviewing the substantial contributions of 'long-term' studies to evolutionary biology www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/n

Welp this is horrifying. These researchers quantified the "stratigraphy" of plastic waste used in Common Coot nests. Using expiration dates, they found one nest that contained 635 (!!!) pieces of trash, including plastic dating back to 1991. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

New paper in @nature.com led by @patricepottier.bsky.social! We demonstrated global vulnerability of amphibians to warming, threatening 10% of >5,000 species examined. How did we do it? See thread🧵 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📢Our new paper on alien vertebrates in the world's mountains is now out @naturecomms.bsky.social. Using data on 700+ spp across ~3,000 mountains we explore their distribution patterns,flows across realms, presence in protected areas, and the factors driving these trends. 🐟🐸🦎🦜🦝⛰️ 👉 rdcu.be/ebidu

Our study on Duttaphrynus melanostictus evolution published in Nature Communication. We showed how these toads likely spread across the Indian Ocean via human transport, from ancient trade routes to modern shipping. 🌍🐸 @chrisdufresnes.bsky.social @naturecomms.bsky.social @comeniusuni.bsky.social

The late Eric Pianka made thousands of observations of desert lizard body temperature and activity. We used them to test biophysical models of their cost of living and projected the models to past and future climates in Africa and Australia #unimelb #ARC @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I'm very happy to announce I just published a paper from my post doc with Gavin Thomas in @natureecoevo.bsky.social! So if you're interested in #macroevolution, #phylogenetics and sexual size dimorphism (SSD), strap in doi.org/10.1038/s415...

New work from the lab! Annelise Blanchette found that brown anole lizards may be the most lead (pb) tolerant vertebrate known to date by integrating physiological studies of field and lab exposed animals and transcriptomics #urbanecology #ecotox #anolis 🦎 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🌍🌱 It’s often believed that plant communities with greater phylogenetic diversity also have higher functional diversity. In other words, the more evolutionary lineages present, the greater the range of traits. But is this always true?

🚨Paper out! I am very proud to announce the publication of my very last #PhD article, exploring the vulnerability of terrestrial #vertebrates to #invasivespecies. Check the paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... With C. Bellard @celinebellard.bsky.social, B. Leroy, and G. Latombe

Come join us in Tucson!! I am excited to announce a tenure track faculty position on the genomics of resilience @uofa-eeb.bsky.social! Read more about the position in the updated link below! We will begin reviewing applications on December 9! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Why are so many bugs shiny? New experiments with jumping spiders suggest the bling is visually confusing! Story also includes disco balls and Harry Styles. For Reasons 😆🧪 pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/a-b...

The world has to smell the climate change coffee www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/11... Climate change is real, and progressing very fast. Despite that COP29 offered less than 0.3% of world GDP to emerging economies to help them address the problems that the developed world created.

First post here. I’ll unpack our new paper @science.org highlighting the loss of old animals and calling for ‘longevity conservation’ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Fewer bats -> more pesticides -> bad for kids "Frank illustrates that farmers increased insecticide use by over 31%, and infant mortality increased by nearly 8%, in counties that experienced bat declines" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Carl Sagan testified before Congress in 1985 on climate change ~ 40 years ago, and the message and Science remains the same. Sagan is an inspiration. The ability to explain Science in the simplest terms. An extraordinary teacher and communicator www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp-W... 🧪🌎

This is a cool paper- Growth–defense trade-offs shape population genetic composition in an iconic forest tree species #Aspen "interaction between context-dependent selection and trait covariance promises to transform our understanding of intraspecific trait variation" www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... 🧪

This interesting new paper provides an overview of the extent of vertebrate #biodiversity potentially threatened by ongoing and future dryland loss. 🌍🧪 go.nature.com/4f8boF1

Trees have overlapping potential niches that extend beyond their realized niches www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... 🧪🌎

Hotspot shelters allow frogs 🐸 to behaviourally increase resistance to chytridiomycosis | doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Can negative frequency-dependent selection (NFDS) overcome selection posed by habitat heterogeneity to promote local polymorphism? Individual-based modelling suggests NFDS may maintain local polymorphism under limited conditions @gopalmurali.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...